As it was, he did not spend a halfpenny upon anything but
hunting; and his hunting, though well, was still economically done, costing
him some couple of thousand a year, to which, for the sake of euphony, Jack
used to add an extra five hundred; 'two thousand five under'd a year,
five-and-twenty under'd a year,' sounding better, as Jack thought, and more
imposing, than a couple of thousand, or two thousand, a year. There were
few days on which Jack didn't inform the field what the hounds cost his
lordship, or rather what they didn't cost him.
Woodmansterne, his lordship's principal residence, was a fine place. It
stood in an undulating park of 800 acres, with its church, and its lakes,
and its heronry, and its decoy, and its racecourse, and its varied grasses
of the choicest kinds, for feeding the numerous herds of deer, so well
known at Temple Bar and Charing Cross as the Woodmansterne venison. The
house was a modern edifice, built by the sixth earl, who, having been a
'liver,' had run himself aground by his enormous outlay on this Italian
structure, which was just finished when he died.
Pages:
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315